The Digital Pack-Rat, volume 1

Nothing new here--just a collection of old comments, mostly from Pharyngula, that I am putting here just to have them in one place. I should really track down links to the original threads, but not today.

First, posted while I was in Bulgaria, I think--PZ had an actual science thread, on variation in snake populations, as measured in their resistance to Tetrodotoxin. Different snake populations had solved the problem of how to eat poisonous salamanders by selection of different mutations. Very cool.

Mercy me! For goodness' sakes!
Evolving proteins in some snakes
Are letting them make meals of newts
(No, not the kind in business suits,
But Gingrich is a special case,
And this is not the time nor place)
Without the nasty tummy-ache
That signals curtains for the snake--
The newts, you see, have TTX
(Tetrodotoxin) which effects
The channeling of sodium
Through nervous membranes, which for some
Makes Fugu into "Tasty Fish"
But would not be a snake's first wish;
There are three groups of which we speak,
From Warrenton, and Willow Creek,
And Benton. Populations vary
In mutations that they carry,
Also in resistance found,
Compared to other snakes around.
Mutations in the protein chains
Have been confirmed, and this explains
The difference in immunity--
It's quite what you'd expect to see
If such things worked by miss and hit
And not by some Creation shit.


******

Next, from a while back when PZed was getting email from concerned citizens... in particular the threat that traced back to the floral delivery company... We sometimes forget that emails leave a trail, that can be followed.

I imagine someone cowers in an office, after hours,
At the 1-800-Flowers building, somewhere in New York.
Overwhelmed by the unending flow of emails folks are sending,
With no chance at all, intending for to stop it with a cork.
Once you start to dance or revel, if the fiddler is the Devil
Then there's no more straight and level--you are gambling with your soul;
If you bend to your desires and you threaten P. Z. Myers,
It's your choice to burn in fires, and we'll see you in the hole!



******


The cracker kerfuffle resulted in (I shan't say "inspired") entirely too many posts, and entirely too many comments:

If PZ is demonized, villainized, hated,
Beyond even Hitler, the worst of the worst,
Imagine how horrible God is, who fated
His son to be crucified (He did it first).
If Jesus, who knew that He would not outlive them,
(Because He was dying, but also was God)
Could say of His torturers "Father, forgive them",
It seems Richard Riley's reaction is odd.
In two thousand years, how those words are distorted--
A message of love and forgiveness? Oh, well....
A nail through a cracker is what was reported;
Now Myers is Hitler... and so, burns in Hell.


******

More than just the cracker Kerfuffle, there were posts on works of art that somehow also offended the HRC. Jesus with an erection, or a crucified frog...

Why are there so many threads about Catholics
And who's on the other side?
Catholics have rosaries, and Catholics have Mary,
And crackers with Jesus inside--
So they've been told, and some choose to believe it
Like some sort of devious plan
Someday we'll find it--the Jesus connection
The subhuman atheists and man...

Who said that Jesus lives inside of each biscuit--
Who'd say a thing that bizarre?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
And look what it's done so far--
What's so religious it makes us litigious?
And what do we think we should ban?
Someday we'll find it--the Jesus connection--
The inhuman atheists and man....

...All of them under its spell
We know it's deplorably tragic...

Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices?
And what do they tell you to do?
Is this religious? Or is it psychotic?
And how do you tell 'twixt the two?
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
I'm sorry the whole thing began...
Someday we'll find it--the Jesus connection--
Those atheist bastards and man...

*****

Enough for one post. More later.